At The Precipice Of Something New

Something Glowing

The Institute
December the 3rd, 2288
5:53

Sudden, early morning meetings were a rarity for the Institute Directorate yet, for once, they all knew precisely why one had been called.

Ten days of concern. Ten days of suspicion.

Ten days since the disappearance of the head of Institute Advanced Systems and her protégé during what should have been a routine visit home for the young protégé.

Already a somewhat anxious man, seeing the faintest signs of worry in the face of the Director left Dr. Clayton Holdren feeling sick as he sat down, his hands clammy and shaky in his lap while he watched his colleagues come into the Directorate's meeting room. He was far from the only one. Dr. Allison Filmore, partly due to exhaustion from tending to her baby daughter's cold most of the night and partly due to the anxiety of her foster daughter going missing, looked not only distressed but slightly dishevelled. For someone who put a great deal of energy into keeping herself all but perfectly put together, seeing her so visibly worried about anything was unusual. Even the usually content if not upbeat Dr. Alan Binet seemed to be quite troubled by being called to such an early meeting, a million questions racing through his mind. Only Dr. Alana Secord seemed to be the same as ever; calm, methodical, and making no indication of her thoughts in her gait or countenance. It was Dr. Evan Watson, however, who seemed the most ready for the meeting to commence, disquieted by the look on the face of the Director, well aware of how difficult it was to truly unnerve his friend and close colleague and thus startled by the worry in his face. When the doors were finally shut and locked, he took a glance at his friend's father, and the feeling only worsened when he saw Nathaniel, too, seemed as troubled as Shaun.

"Given the state of things, I am sure you all know why you're here," Shaun said, pausing when he briefly looked at the open file in front of him. "As you're all well aware, ten days ago, Dr. Li and Miss Spencer disappeared during one of Miss Spencer's visits home. Our intelligence has finally determined what happened. Unfortunately, it is profoundly unlucky – for them and for us – as well as deeply disturbing. Dr. Secord, if you would."

"Due to a credible identification of a missing third generation synth unit, designation B2-19, on the road about fifteen miles south of University Point, Courser X6-88 briefly left the town to retrieve the unit," Alana said, a bit of annoyance slipping into her voice. "B2-19 was returned and reset and has returned to cleaning duties. However, in this time, Dr. Li and Miss Spencer arrived a few minutes early on the outskirts of University Point for Miss Spencer's visit home. While never a problem before, even when X6-88, since the unit's postage, has been away from University Point when they arrive, Dr. Li and Miss Spencer were ambushed by the Brotherhood Of Steel."

Clayton paled. "Are they...were they killed?"

"No," Alana said shortly. "They were abducted."

Silence.

"How was this allowed to happen?" Evan said sceptically. "Are we certain Dr. Li didn't plan this, given her history with the Brotherhood?"

"We are," Alana frigidly replied. "After careful examination of the circumstances and after managing to get watchers close enough to the Brotherhood's airship, called the Prydwen, to record, we learnt, from a discussion on one of the open air decks between two of the Brotherhood's presumed leaders, they planned to abduct Dr. Li and Miss Spencer. Unfortunately, even knowing this, we can't get anything closer to them than the watchers without risking their lives. If we went in there with Coursers, there's a massive chance the Brotherhood would kill both of them and the Courser."

Evan raised an eyebrow. "What about the Relay? Is there any chance we could use the Relay to safely return them to the Institute since we know their approximate location?"